The New York-based McLaren Engineering Group completed its design work on the new 350,000-square-foot Live! Hotel and Event Center in Hanover, Md. The event center and conference center are to follow later this year.
The hotel has 310 guestrooms, a spa and 1,500-seat ballroom.
McLaren Engineering Group worked on the project for more than five years to design a structural frame without sacrificing key architectural elements and flexibility. The firm provided services that include structural design and engineering, construction documents, permitting, site/civil engineering, survey work and site landscaping.
Owned by The Cordish Companies, the hotel was built as an expansion to the Live! Casino structure that opened in 2012. Live! Casino is the largest casino and entertainment venue on the East Coast with approximately 4,000 slot machines and more than 200 live action table games. The two million-square-foot structure includes approximately 310,000 square-feet of casino space on the first level. The hotel’s construction was phased to minimize interruption to the 24-hour casino operations.
McLaren moved an existing roadway adjacent to the west side of the casino about 300 feet to create space for the new hotel. The new surface parking lots will provide in excess of 1,900 spaces and are built on top of ground that previously housed a stormwater pond. The building pad underwent extensive ground improvements to solidify the soil before construction could begin.
According to Dave McLaren, VP and Maryland regional director of McLaren Engineering Group, one of the most challenging aspects of the project was building up against the casino. To connect the buildings, the group designed an elevator core attached to the existing precast casino garage to give patrons access to both facilities. This required the group to cut the existing garage girders, leaving a portion of the garage to be supported by the elevator core. Additionally, the transformation of the existing stormwater pond into 4,600 linear feet of 10’ diameter pipe underground allowed for the reclamation of land generating 510 of the approximately 1,900 added surface parking spaces.
The hotel tower is the tallest structure in Anne Arundel County, Md.
Photo credit: Live! Hotel and Event Center